Tuesday, July 03, 2012

House to Begin Work on the Farm Bill Next Week

Last
week, the House Agriculture Committee passed its most recent activities
report for the third quarter of 2012. Additionally, the Agriculture
appropriations bill was scheduled to get floor time but the Transportation,
Housing, and Urban Development appropriations bill and the Highway reauthorization
bill took up most of the floor time last week. This is a missed opportunity as
the debates during the Agriculture appropriations bill would have given us a
glimpse of potential issues to be raised during the Farm bill reauthorization.

Although
Congress is in recess this week, the House Agriculture committee will release
the draft version of the Farm bill by the end of the week, most likely
Thursday. In the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling, House leadership has
scheduled a symbolic repeal vote of the Affordable Care Act on the same day as
the Farm bill markup. House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) has made it
clear that he will be moving forward with the
July 11 Farm bill markup.

The House Farm bill will contain some similarities to the Senate version and will look to
spend around $900 billion. There will be significant differences that Senate
Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Ranking member Pat
Roberts (R-KS) anticipate will be worked out during conference. Differences
include:

1.SNAP-
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will be an issue in conference as the
House will make significantly larger cuts from this program than the Senate
bill has made.

2.Southern
Commodity- A National
Journal article does a great job describing the conflict between regional farmers
in the Farm bill. To paraphrase, Southern peanut and rice growers complain that
they are being treated unfairly in the Senate Farm Bill in regards to commodity
pricing and crop insurance. The House will likely add a provision that will
help to address crop insurance and commodity prices for these farmers by
allowing the government to set price floors. This is very different from the
Senate Bill as it bases prices on the market.

3.Fiscal
Restraint- Deficit hawks in the House will be looking to make major cuts in the
House bill. Things like conservation, nutritional programs, and rural development
initiatives may all be in danger of funding cuts in the House Farm bill.

Even
with these differences, both Chairwoman Stabenow and Chairman Lucas are
committed to passing the Farm Bill this year. Most sources I have spoken to
agree that the Farm bill will take up most of the summer.